The Cure Newcastle late 70s and early 80s
I saw The Cure quite a few times in the early days of their career. The first time that I saw them was at the Reading Festival in 1979, when they appeared low down on the bill on the Friday night. I remember that I had read a lot about them, and I’d also had heard the single “Killing an Arab” on the radio. So I made of point of being in the arena and watching them that night. They went down prety well, and showed some promise, even at that early stage. I also saw them at a gig in Newcastle University Ballrom on a Saturday night sometime in 1980. I also saw them as support act for Siouxsie and the Banshees at Newcastle Poly. Robert Smith played two sets that night, first with The Cure and then as guitarist for The Banshees. My favourite Cure song at the time was “A Forest”, and it probably still is today. By 1981 they had graduated to playing the City Hall. 
The great Cure gig list site http://www.cure-concerts.de shows the setlist for the 1981 Newcastle gig as: The Funeral Party, M, The Drowning Man, All Cats Are Grey, Three Imaginary Boys, Primary, At Night, Fire In Cairo, Play For Today, Grinding Halt, A Forest, Faith, Jumping Someone Else’s Train, Another Journey By Train, Killing An Arab, Forever. Looking at other setlists from the same tour, indicates that the Newcastle set was comparatively short in comparison with some of the other gigs on the tour, with some shows featuring many more songs. I have a lovely little programme from those days (see scan) which is a song book, and contains the lyrics from many of their early songs. I’m not sure at which gig I bought this, but it must have been from one of their early tours. I saw The Cure twice more in the 80s, and will blog on those gigs over the next couple of days. There was then a gap of 23 years before I saw them again, at Wembley, in 2008.
Update 22 December 2021
Many thanks indeed for the lovely image of the poster for the concert which Jimmy Burns (a.k.a. Punk Hoarder) kindly sent me and has allowed me to add this to my post. It brings back great memories of a great band. I didn’t realise at the time how important the cure would become in the history of new wave, punk, goth and pop music. They really have provided millions of people with enjoyment and entertainment over the years. And their back catalogue is extensive, wide-ranging in style and lots of fun!
Vintagerock's Weblog. 
Posted by Graham Rodger on January 31, 2015 at 8:44 pm
Great review, definitely The Cure’s golden era, nice atmospheric, ethereal setlist. Funnily enough, I also had a 22 year gap between seeing them at The Newcastle Mayfair in April 1992, Edinburgh Playhouse in November 1992 and then The Royal Albert Hall in March 2014. They were supposed to perform at the Newcastle Arena on 4th December 1996 (my birthday) but the show was cancelled, due to poor ticket sales (although at the time they said it was “technical problems” with the lighting).
Posted by vintagerock on February 1, 2015 at 9:48 am
Thanks Graham. I lost faith in the Cure for a period and have recently got back into them and realised just how classic they are. Their shows nowadays tend to be marathons 🙂 Cheers Peter